1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a device for patient gait training wherein the device provides partial weight bearing of the walking-impaired patient during such gait training. More specifically, this invention provides, in one unitary device, efficiently combined for use by a therapist, a device for partial weight bearing (PWB) gait training of a patient assisting many useful elements and functions, e.g., use to support a patient over a treadmill; use with both pediatric and adult patients; use with a patient over ground; use in assisting wheelchair patients from a seated position to a standing position; provision of a proper upright posture and leg extension; use with walkers and other attachments; ability to easily move the device through doors and the ability to use the device in low-ceiling rooms; provision of a fully vertical lift for PWB; and provision of constant easy access for the therapist to the legs of the patient during training.
2. Description of the Prior Art
To those skilled in the art, terms such as "gait training"and "partial weight bearing" are well known. In general, the former term refers to a method of training a person to walk, and the later term is one particular example of gait training. Partial weight bearing or partial weight bearing gait training is a method of training a patient to walk wherein the weight of the patient is partially supported by some device, and the amount of weight relief provided by the device for the patient is gradually reduced as the patient learns to walk normally. In other words, the person becomes physically capable of supporting his or her own full weight while walking.
For many years, institutions such as hospitals, nursing homes, physical therapy clinics, psychiatrists in private practice, school systems, outpatient centers, and rehabilitation facilities have had the need to provide both inpatient and outpatient physical therapy services for patients with walking disorders who require retraining, including partial weight relief of the patient during such training. Typically, the amount of weight relief provided a patient undergoing gait training is less and less as the course of the gait training progresses.
Typically, at present, large institutions like hospitals may provide a separate room location containing a ceiling track or frame structure from which may be suspended a cable hoist. The patient is placed in a harness attached to the cable, the weight of the patient is relieved by raising the cable, and the patient may then use a treadmill or may be supported for floor movement by moving the cable device along the ceiling track.
Also typically, pools providing underwater buoyancy have been used for weight relief. Obviously, such devices are very expensive, are not transportable to alternative locations, and are often inefficient both in controlling the amount of weight relief and in providing proper posture support.
More recently, typically for treadmill use in smaller institutions, a smaller device has been available which consists of a pair of heavy side elements/standards with triangular bases across the tops of which lies a crossbar element from which a cable and harness are suspended. Some prior art gait training devices lift a patient in a manner that alters a patient's posture from the normal desired walking posture--a substantially straight standing posture of the body. For example, the movement of the lifting portion of some prior art gait training devices forms an arc when the lifting portion is viewed as moving from a lowest to a highest position. This arc motion, as opposed to a linear, vertical motion, distorts the normal walking posture of a patient, and is therefore undesirable. Additionally, such prior art devices do not fit through normal doors, are not movable when the patient walks, do not permit the therapist unobstructed access to the patient's legs, and are otherwise inefficient for PWB gait training of patients with moderate to severe gait deficits.
Thus, for a considerable time period there has existed a need, to which the present invention is addressed, for a unitary device for use in partial weight bearing training of a patient, which addresses the above-mentioned and other problems in an efficient, cost-effective, combinatorial, creative, and operational manner. Nowhere, until the present invention, has there been provided an efficient and easily transportable PWB gait training device which may be used either with a treadmill or with a patient moving over ground while simultaneously permitting variable, linear, vertical lifting of a patient, thereby maintaining proper patient walking posture.